Rupert Murdoch is a malevolent force in Democracy, both in the UK & US (& Australia). He only backs whichever horse is beneficial to him and his empire. He, like the rest of the GOP establishment and probably against his own instincts, went along with the Trump bandwagon until the situation was no longer of benefit. For far too long Murdoch has had far too much influence in politics and people’s lives - he is a major reason Thatcher was inflicted on the people of the UK. She wouldn’t have succeeded without his backing. People are still living with the devastation she wrought on communities up and down the UK, similar to the “Rust belt”. I hope he gets sued for all he’s worth. He’s already manoeuvring to hitch his cart to Ron DeSantis.
“Trump was ecstatic about OAN’s flattering coverage of him. By the summer of 2020 -- dissatisfied with what he considered insufficient gushing by Fox News – Trump was urging his followers to switch to OAN and Newsmax, calling them “much better” than Fox. He did the same after the election, when OAN’s journalists were more willing than many Fox correspondents to continue pushing Trump’s Big Lie.”
Umm, “journalists”? No, not even pundits, but mere on-air “personalities” who parrot the politics of their employers and pander to the prejudices of their viewers.
Aug 2, 2022·edited Aug 2, 2022Liked by Robert Reich
It’s ALWAYS just about money! Gullible viewers listening & believing their lies makes them tons of money!!! Right wing media have gone off the rails & need to be shutdown. They have abused the 1st Amendment & then turn around looking for it’s protection in court! Trumpism is even worse than typical right wing media BS & has corrupted the entire Repub Party! Stopping their lies is an impossible task bec it’s endemic to their nature & belief that they can’t win elections without cheating in any way shape or form!! Shutting their media mouthpieces down would be helpful & prove valuable toward convincing the gullible supporters to use a little bit of the critical thinking skills they must have learned at some point in school. We can only stop the lies from continuing by filing multiple defamation lawsuits & silence them on the airwaves! 1st Amendment abuse deserves to be silenced as punishment!
Aug 2, 2022·edited Aug 2, 2022Liked by Robert Reich
There are citizens, and there are entities. Citizens are flesh-and-blood humans, people, individuals. There are entities - all manner of artificial constructs which act by virtue of their construction. We have drifted from this vital distinction to our detriment.
Also, there are individuals and entities which possess a certain amount of power in our society. There are the powerful, and there are the powerless, making a distinction that really varies in degree.
Not only are natural rights the prerogative of the human and not the entity, natural rights are recognized to protect the individual to the degree that one is powerless. When a powerless individual confronts a powerful entity, protection of the individual should be recognized. The powerful have their power to protect them.
Donald Trump would call upon the First Amendment to protect his speech as President, which is utter nonsense. The President acting in office has NO First Amendment privilege. The First Amendment is intended to protect the individual against the Government.
The absurd ruling of the Supreme Court in Citizens United, that money is speech, is predicated upon the premise that powerful corporations have a co-equal right to protection as the individual. This is a proposition in law, not a derivation from the Constitution.
Persons lie, entities entertain. All the free speech nonsense from Alex Jones is that he is putting on an entertainment show, as is Fox News - the Pro Wrestling of our political culture. Upon what premise do we allow this? Certainly, people prefer entertainment, and over the last 30 years in America, will select the entertaining over the truthful. Only Adam Kinzinger and Elizabeth Cheney among the Republican Party are disgusted by kayfabe, and find entertainment to be a dismal counterfeit of the truth.
Leni Riefenstahl documented the Nazi Party's entertainment rally in Nuremburg, and helped seduce the German people into the romance of feeling certain and proud of themselves - but in terms defined by this horrid show. The American people seem to have a taste for romantic Fascism. It is not true, but it feels good.
We need to consider that truth and its promulgation are untouchable, but ersatz truth such as Fox News are not the same as truth. We need to break our sugar-addiction to political entertainment, and understand again what citizens and our rights entail.
The fewer sources that can spread lies the better. For many, the lawsuits are about money. For those of us that care it’s about accountability. Newsmax and OAN may not recover but there are always going to be big sources that spread lies and they must be held accountable.
I wait for the day (not holding my breath) when OAN, Newmax and Fox are no longer able to reach their rabid members. Maybe then, our country will begin (just begin) to heal.
Thank heavens for these law suits! It seems like the only way we will get rid of these liars and they will be held accountable. Now someone should sue Trump but he usually gets other people to do his dirty work.
Wow! We needed this! Some good news. Now we need a drone strike against InfoWars perhaps. What an evil person. And for him it WAS all about the money and Right Wing audience it seems. Dominion has all the evidence as I understand it. They can prove their hardware was accurate and their bottom line was deeply harmed. Maybe throw in a suit against CyberNinjas, who wasted a lot of taxpayer money in Arizona I think.
The rich right-wing-nut-jobs being defeated via defunding! Unfortunately big companies are already using this against eco-activists and, of course, their political wing under McConnell has loaded the SCOTUS and is doing the same with other judicial and administrative infrastructures - and no doubt reinforcing their hold on the police and military too, despite the way they treat veterans.
Pardon the nit-picking, but you don't have to be far-left to be anti-fascist (witness ordinary Europeans, Asians, Americans and Africans ((in reverse alphabetical order)) in WW2) and my understanding is that the antifa groups (are they genuinely a movement, other than to neo-fascists?) are, mostly, merely centrists and ordinary left-wingers.
I say this bearing in mind that what passes as 'Centrist' in the US is really quite right-wing, in my opinion; a result of the political and commercial right controlling the perspective of people to further demonise communism, when that was the enemy left after 1945.
Tort lawyers, personal injury lawyers, medical malpractice lawyers. Some call them ambulance chasers. Meanwhile, they perform the valuable function of social engineering, fixing things, in a civilized way.
This current struggle entails strange bedfellows for someone with left leanings since the Vietnam era. Counting on the FBI , The court systems and the US military to keep election deniers , gun toting white supremacists and assorted lying traitors at bay ,could never have been predicted.
These are the people that were persecuting blacks and hippies. In particular the Chicago eight and black panthers. This is the system that put Muhammad Ali in jail, oh yes, and ended or ruined the lives of thousands of young Americans for a war we shouldn’t have fought. A war where we learned absolutely nothing as evidenced by Iraq. Now it is fashionable to belatedly thank Vietnam veterans for their service. Perhaps one day it will be fashionable to thank the protesters who were instrumental in getting their asses out of there.
Sorry to enter this discussion from an oblique angle. I just needed to express what a long strange trip it’s been.
I think we need to prepare our children better to think for themselves, to learn how to "fact-check", and what it means to live in a democracy .... it's a verb! not a guaranteed state of being. Civics 101. We must do better. We've been had, big-time.
Rupert Murdoch is a malevolent force in Democracy, both in the UK & US (& Australia). He only backs whichever horse is beneficial to him and his empire. He, like the rest of the GOP establishment and probably against his own instincts, went along with the Trump bandwagon until the situation was no longer of benefit. For far too long Murdoch has had far too much influence in politics and people’s lives - he is a major reason Thatcher was inflicted on the people of the UK. She wouldn’t have succeeded without his backing. People are still living with the devastation she wrought on communities up and down the UK, similar to the “Rust belt”. I hope he gets sued for all he’s worth. He’s already manoeuvring to hitch his cart to Ron DeSantis.
“Trump was ecstatic about OAN’s flattering coverage of him. By the summer of 2020 -- dissatisfied with what he considered insufficient gushing by Fox News – Trump was urging his followers to switch to OAN and Newsmax, calling them “much better” than Fox. He did the same after the election, when OAN’s journalists were more willing than many Fox correspondents to continue pushing Trump’s Big Lie.”
Umm, “journalists”? No, not even pundits, but mere on-air “personalities” who parrot the politics of their employers and pander to the prejudices of their viewers.
It’s ALWAYS just about money! Gullible viewers listening & believing their lies makes them tons of money!!! Right wing media have gone off the rails & need to be shutdown. They have abused the 1st Amendment & then turn around looking for it’s protection in court! Trumpism is even worse than typical right wing media BS & has corrupted the entire Repub Party! Stopping their lies is an impossible task bec it’s endemic to their nature & belief that they can’t win elections without cheating in any way shape or form!! Shutting their media mouthpieces down would be helpful & prove valuable toward convincing the gullible supporters to use a little bit of the critical thinking skills they must have learned at some point in school. We can only stop the lies from continuing by filing multiple defamation lawsuits & silence them on the airwaves! 1st Amendment abuse deserves to be silenced as punishment!
There are citizens, and there are entities. Citizens are flesh-and-blood humans, people, individuals. There are entities - all manner of artificial constructs which act by virtue of their construction. We have drifted from this vital distinction to our detriment.
Also, there are individuals and entities which possess a certain amount of power in our society. There are the powerful, and there are the powerless, making a distinction that really varies in degree.
Not only are natural rights the prerogative of the human and not the entity, natural rights are recognized to protect the individual to the degree that one is powerless. When a powerless individual confronts a powerful entity, protection of the individual should be recognized. The powerful have their power to protect them.
Donald Trump would call upon the First Amendment to protect his speech as President, which is utter nonsense. The President acting in office has NO First Amendment privilege. The First Amendment is intended to protect the individual against the Government.
The absurd ruling of the Supreme Court in Citizens United, that money is speech, is predicated upon the premise that powerful corporations have a co-equal right to protection as the individual. This is a proposition in law, not a derivation from the Constitution.
Persons lie, entities entertain. All the free speech nonsense from Alex Jones is that he is putting on an entertainment show, as is Fox News - the Pro Wrestling of our political culture. Upon what premise do we allow this? Certainly, people prefer entertainment, and over the last 30 years in America, will select the entertaining over the truthful. Only Adam Kinzinger and Elizabeth Cheney among the Republican Party are disgusted by kayfabe, and find entertainment to be a dismal counterfeit of the truth.
Leni Riefenstahl documented the Nazi Party's entertainment rally in Nuremburg, and helped seduce the German people into the romance of feeling certain and proud of themselves - but in terms defined by this horrid show. The American people seem to have a taste for romantic Fascism. It is not true, but it feels good.
We need to consider that truth and its promulgation are untouchable, but ersatz truth such as Fox News are not the same as truth. We need to break our sugar-addiction to political entertainment, and understand again what citizens and our rights entail.
The fewer sources that can spread lies the better. For many, the lawsuits are about money. For those of us that care it’s about accountability. Newsmax and OAN may not recover but there are always going to be big sources that spread lies and they must be held accountable.
I wait for the day (not holding my breath) when OAN, Newmax and Fox are no longer able to reach their rabid members. Maybe then, our country will begin (just begin) to heal.
Dare I say it?
Because of this, the excellent work of the January 6th commission, and other recent news I feel some still tenuous signs of hope.
Professor Reich, and so many others, may you continue to have good health and support in your life to be able to carry on with your important work.
Thank heavens for these law suits! It seems like the only way we will get rid of these liars and they will be held accountable. Now someone should sue Trump but he usually gets other people to do his dirty work.
Wow! We needed this! Some good news. Now we need a drone strike against InfoWars perhaps. What an evil person. And for him it WAS all about the money and Right Wing audience it seems. Dominion has all the evidence as I understand it. They can prove their hardware was accurate and their bottom line was deeply harmed. Maybe throw in a suit against CyberNinjas, who wasted a lot of taxpayer money in Arizona I think.
It's more likely that the Murdochs found tRump less useful, not that they have had a change of heart. (they have hearts?).
Any defamation law suits against Steve Bannon?
He master minded most of Trump's strategies and on his media radio show, he spreads all of the election & conspiracy lies.
Appreciation to Robert Reich for his dedication to Democracy and his lazer focus on the issues.
His knowledgeable answers of how to address the issues of American politics, is expertly conveyed in his emails. He is my trusted source of the truth.
The rich right-wing-nut-jobs being defeated via defunding! Unfortunately big companies are already using this against eco-activists and, of course, their political wing under McConnell has loaded the SCOTUS and is doing the same with other judicial and administrative infrastructures - and no doubt reinforcing their hold on the police and military too, despite the way they treat veterans.
Pardon the nit-picking, but you don't have to be far-left to be anti-fascist (witness ordinary Europeans, Asians, Americans and Africans ((in reverse alphabetical order)) in WW2) and my understanding is that the antifa groups (are they genuinely a movement, other than to neo-fascists?) are, mostly, merely centrists and ordinary left-wingers.
I say this bearing in mind that what passes as 'Centrist' in the US is really quite right-wing, in my opinion; a result of the political and commercial right controlling the perspective of people to further demonise communism, when that was the enemy left after 1945.
The Wheels Of Justice are slower than Molasses In January!
Tort lawyers, personal injury lawyers, medical malpractice lawyers. Some call them ambulance chasers. Meanwhile, they perform the valuable function of social engineering, fixing things, in a civilized way.
This current struggle entails strange bedfellows for someone with left leanings since the Vietnam era. Counting on the FBI , The court systems and the US military to keep election deniers , gun toting white supremacists and assorted lying traitors at bay ,could never have been predicted.
These are the people that were persecuting blacks and hippies. In particular the Chicago eight and black panthers. This is the system that put Muhammad Ali in jail, oh yes, and ended or ruined the lives of thousands of young Americans for a war we shouldn’t have fought. A war where we learned absolutely nothing as evidenced by Iraq. Now it is fashionable to belatedly thank Vietnam veterans for their service. Perhaps one day it will be fashionable to thank the protesters who were instrumental in getting their asses out of there.
Sorry to enter this discussion from an oblique angle. I just needed to express what a long strange trip it’s been.
I think we need to prepare our children better to think for themselves, to learn how to "fact-check", and what it means to live in a democracy .... it's a verb! not a guaranteed state of being. Civics 101. We must do better. We've been had, big-time.